Princeton,
NJ, March 28, 2012–William Stacy Johnson
will give his inaugural lecture as Princeton Theological Seminary’s Arthur M.
Adams Professor of Systematic Theology on Monday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m. in
Stuart Hall, Room 6 on the Seminary campus. The lecture is titled “What is True
Religion? Re-envisioning the Gospel in Poetry, Prayer, and Prophetic Witness.”

The lecture,
which coincides with Holy Week, “invites us to rethink the very heart of
Christianity and to consider afresh what it means to follow Jesus in the 21st
century,” says Johnson. He continued, “The gospel cannot be reduced to a set of
abstract doctrines. Rather, the gospel is a dynamic power effecting personal
and communal transformation. Because this is so, there is an unfinished
character to the gospel itself—compelling Jesus’ contemporary followers to
re-envision the gospel in order to remain faithful to it.”

An ordained
Presbyterian minister and lawyer, Johnson earned his Ph.D. in the study of
religion from Harvard University, his J.D. from Wake Forest University, and his
M.Div. from Union Presbyterian Seminary.

His work over
the years has focused on the future of Christian churches, and especially the
theological, ethical, and spiritual challenges they face. He spent five years
serving on a Presbyterian Church (USA) task force on Christian identity in the
twenty-first century; three years as cochair of a Jewish-Christian-Muslim
dialogue group; and continues to work at seeking recognition and justice for
same-gender couples.

His teaching
encompasses the reshaping of Reformed theology in a postmodern age, post-Holocaust
age, theology of religions, environmental theology, Christianity’s cultured
critics, feminist theology, leadership theory, as well as the writings of John
Calvin, the Niebuhrs, Martin Luther King Jr., Emmanuel Lewis, and others.

Johnson’s
publications include, Crisis, Call, and
Leadership in the Abrahamic Traditions, with Peter Ochs, (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009), John
Calvin, Reformer for the 21st Century (Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), and A Time to Embrace: Same Gender Relationships
in Religion, Law, and Politics (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006).

For more information, please contact the
Communications/Publications Office at 609.497.7760 or visit www.ptsem.edu.

Celebrating its Bicentennial in 2012,
Princeton is the largest Presbyterian seminary in the country, with more than
500 students in six graduate degree programs.